Barnesandnoble Pushes Online Brand In Retail Outlets

Barnesandnoble.com, New York, will promote its brand through shopping bags distributed in its retail stores in the six weeks before Christmas.

In a multichannel retail strategy announced this week, barnesandnoble.com will distribute 9 million shopping bags to Barnes & Noble stores around the country printed with "bn.com, Come shop online." It will also offer discounts on Web purchases made.

"The bag program enables us to leverage customers in our stores to make them multichannel customers," said CEO Jonathan Bulkeley at the eRetailing '99 conference in New York this week.